Alomar wrote:My question'll be in English so I make sure I ask it right:
How often does biological gender override grammatical gender when using a pronoun?
E.g. Ich habe es gekauft. instead of Ich habe ihn gekauft. for den Stuhl
Never.
Really, I have never said something like that, or heard someone saying this. I don't know, maybe one says this in Middle or Low German, but in my environment, really, I've never met this. (In fact, Ich habe ihn gekauft is also very seldom. But that relates to your second question.)
[quote="Alomar]
And on a (maybe) related note:
How frequently are the "der" words used instead of the pronouns?
Of the flavor:
Ich habe den gekauft. for
Ich habe ihn gekauft.
Are they more literary or are they 'emphatic'? And if they are emphatic, what governs that 'emphasis'?
Oh, the things they never teach you in a classroom![/quote]
That is very usual.
Although "Den hab ich gekauft" is the more usual way (in sentences like "Erinnerst du dich noch an den Stuhl, den ich dir gezeigt habe? Den hab ich jetzt gekauft!). You use them mostly when you start to talk about someone (in colloquial speech). Although, when I really imagine, at least if I talk about a person, I never use er/sie in favor of der/die.
Duden defines der/die/das in those cases as "demonstrative pronoun"; and thats what it really does, in fact. It's not really empathic, it's just a stronger way of expressing the 3rd person pronouns.
Example:
Hast du gehört, was die sich letztens wieder gekauft hat? Ganz ehrlich, die übertreibt völlig.
AUX-2SG 2SG hear-PARTII what 3SG.FEM.DEM REFL-3SG lately PARTICLE buy-PART AUX-3SG? INTERJECTION, 3SG.FEM.DEM exaggerate-3SG overall.
Did you hear, what she bought herself lately? Really, she's exaggerating.
Hope I could help you (and hope that my last English sentence is right

)
![:) [:)]](./images/smilies/icon_smile2.png)